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Headboard vs. Bed

9 years ago

Does anybody buy a headboard and use a standard bedframe anymore?

It seems like most threads are talking about beds, but I have always had a headboard with a metal frame for the mattress, although the latest frame is a heavy rigid plastic thing that locks together like a puzzle.

I have had two antique beds and one is a 4x6 rope bed that actually had rope on it. That was pretty saggy.

But my vintage Baker twins going in one room are just headboards and in GW it seems people rarely talk about headboards.

In any case I built a platform for one bedroom that has levelers and a recessed toe kick that's scribed to the floor (which is unlevel and has a bit of a sag) so there is no under the bed for dust bunnies or cats. I will probably do the same for the Baker headboards but it will just be headboards again.

But have people moved toward actual beds again orbis GW just a subset?

Comments (38)

  • 9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I have only headboards, metal frames and box spring mattress setups and one loft bed no box spring platform bed for DD. Is that what you mean? I still use dust ruffles, either pleated or ruffled depending on rooms to hide the metal frame.

  • 9 years ago

    Most of our beds are on metal frames with headboards attached. In one room we used a brass headboard that belonged to my late father. It was for a full-size mattress and we used it on a queen by buying a kit on Amazon to retrofit it to the frame. The only bed we have that is not on a metal frame is our 4 poster in our master bedroom.

  • 9 years ago

    I have a strong dislike for footboards that are higher than the mattress. We just ordered a new wrought iron bed for our master bedroom that has a high headboard and and a footboard that's lower than the mattress. Perhaps if I had enormous bedrooms I would reconsider but I doubt it. The only problem I have with the standard metal frames is that they tend to be fairly low and with 9' ceilings I like the bed to be higher

  • 9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I find with today's thick mattresses that higher than the standard bed height I would need to take a running leap and jump to enter the bed every night and I am over 5'7"... I have high ceilings too.

  • 9 years ago

    My sister's current bed is about as high as her dining room table.

    I built the platform so I could get the bed close to chair height, it is a little higher as it turns out, at about 20" or 21".

  • 9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Nope, I never ever had a headboard, metal frame, box spring, etc..... In fact, I'm still mystified by this set-up. We built our slats before they became available here.

  • 9 years ago

    What do you have nosoccermom? A bed with wooden slats and a mattress on it?

  • 9 years ago

    For DD I found antique twin beds that I had redone. They are full beds- headboard, footboard, wooden slats and side rails. For DS we purchased a reproduction. It has posts at the foot of the bed but no board. DH and I still don't have a proper bed- just the metal frame. For us I plan on just a headboard. One day.

  • 9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I have a simple set-up, mattress and box springs with a metal frame and a padded cloth headboard. I dislike high beds since I'm short and don't want anything hard or obstructing when I get in or out of bed. This is functional and comfortable (and cheap).

  • 9 years ago

    @pal, yes, indeed and always had.

  • 9 years ago

    We have always had just the metal frame + headboard. I used to wish I had a sleigh bed, but DH is 6'4" so he usually ends up with his feet hanging over the end of the (queen size) bed, so no footboards allowed!

  • 9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I have an all-in-one bed with wooden slats upon which a mattress sits (no box springs). I prefer footboards that are higher than the mattress. I'm short enough and it keeps the foot of the bed in place. Without a footboard, it would just mean another access point for cats to burrow under the covers.

    ETA: If having a metal frame means you have bed skirts, then that's not happening.

  • 9 years ago

    My daughter has a metal frame and headboard. It was cheaper. But I prefer a bed, in large part because I don't want bed skirts. I don't need more fabric to wash, especially since we all have dust mite allergies. Also, I like platform beds with storage drawers because we have usually lived in houses with small bedrooms and tiny closets.

  • 9 years ago

    When I divorced and furnished my apartment from nothing, lots of stuff came from Ikea, and Ikea does beds and slats, not headboards. Before that, we wanted to put a king bed in a small bedroom, so we got a storage bed to save the need for a dresser. In college and for several years after I had a metal bed frame with box spring, but no headboard. As a kid, I had a twin bed from a thrift store.

    I don't like my current platform bed very much. (As I mentioned in another thread, I tend to bang my shins on it and the platform takes up space in my already small bedroom. Plus, it's a pain to change the sheets.) So I think eventually I will replace it with a headboard-and-metal-frame setup.

  • PRO
    9 years ago

    In this house I have headboards, only.

    Last house I had no headboards or footboards because I needed space. I used three Euro shams/pillows to mimic a headboard. That is my favorite set up. Gorgeous fabric and you can change it up. Keep the coverlet simple. I still like the look of a bedskirt in the same fabric as the pillows.

    House before that? Both headboard and footboards…I was in my antique furniture mode.

  • 9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I designed my platform 1" smaller all around than the boxspring and there is a 3 or 4" recessed toe kick underneath so no shin banging or toe stubbing. This bed has a wall hung upholstered headboard with openings in it to access the outlets behind the bed.

    I've never really understood what a boxspring does because a lot of them have not much structure to them. My sister's 15" looking one doesn't have any more substance to it than my 5" low profile one.

  • 9 years ago

    When moving to Ca from IL many years ago we started out looking at resales homes. I could not believe how many bedrooms we saw with nothing but a frame/matress/box spring being used as a 'bed', no headboard. I grew up in a home where every bed was complete with a headboard, some with footboards/siderails also. And a matress/box spring sitting directly on the floor was completely foreign to me. I have only one headboard which isn't attached to a bedframe because it's cane shutters hanging above the bed, which serves very nicely as a headboard. Imo, it isn't a bed if it doesnt have a headboard.

  • 9 years ago

    I had a mattress on the floor for a couple years when I was doing my post-doc, and I also slept on a rollaway bed (which was pretty awful) during part of my education.

    For a while I had a brass bed from my great grandparents house but I did not like how tall it was, so I reverted to a mattress on a metal frame, no headboard for a number of years. (I also had bubble wrap covering the bedroom windows at this point--it actually makes a decent window covering).

    Finally I got fancy and cut a piece of plywood and stained and polyurethaned it and propped it behind the bed.

    Then when we moved in here and ditched a 20+ year old mattress, it was back to a frame with no headboard for a few years. I had the custom upholstered headboard installed a few months ago.

    This is going to be my first fully adult house, I think and I am over 50...

    There are a lot of mattresses on frames or the floor and lots of sheets or paper shades or vinyl miniblinds in a lot of real estate here. People get the biggest mortgage they can and then are tapped out for furniture in the rooms people don't see. It's partly a function of a HCOLA, partly a function of our culture.

  • 9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Between both of our houses we have only one bed that's a full bed with headboard and footboard and that is an antique brass bed. All the others are just headboards. I think we ended up that way because we had small bedrooms and footboards took up precious space. Also with small guest rooms even queen size beds were too big and if anyone very tall slept in a full size bed with a footboard their feet would be jammed up against it. And spending more money on a complete beds vs. headboards only has never been high on my furniture investment priority list.

  • 9 years ago

    I never thought about the height of a bed relating to ceiling height. It should relate to the height of the people using the bed!

    We have both - full beds (with slats) and in our master, an iron headboard connected to a metal frame. No footboard - they bug the mister (he is much taller than me LOL).

  • 9 years ago

    I am small enough that I don't mind sleeping in a twin, sometimes. (And that's the amount of personal space you have if you sleep with someone else in a King anyway). But I got into the habit of sliding down and hooking my feet over the bottom edge of the mattress (so in a queen I have to slide quite a bit). This is easier without a footboard.

  • 9 years ago

    I greatly dislike foot boards. I tend to walk into them ! We have metal frames with headboards. I also use bedspreads because I like the look of them draped over the bottom. We have very nice Stickley twin beds in our DDs room. They are the real deal.....headboard, footboard, wooden sides, etc. I bought them at an antique store about 30 years ago. They now also have bed rails because they are used by toddler grandkids.

  • 9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I don't like footboards much so our bed uses a folding screen (unfolded and flat against the wall) as a headboard and a metal frame to hold the boxspring and mattress. The guest room has an antique bed that was modified slightly to accommodate a California King mattress. It didn't come with any slats or bunky board so I just put a metal frame inside the wooden frame. Luckily, it fit perfectly and you would never know unless you looked under the bed.

  • 9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    the whole concept of a bed was kinda non-existent to me until we emigrated for the first time

    beforehand it was a very compact urban living with sleepers and sofabeds, nobody got a real bed because you wanted the rooms to function as rooms not as bedrooms only..so you made the bedroom thing completely dissappear in the morning

    i saw beds only on vacations..summer camps, summer huts..

    then it was dorm beds and whatever neighbors could find for you beds

    then we pompously (me and my ex) bought our first ever real bed-very thick mattress on a platform. it didn't have a headboard. the mattress was of such quality though, i was so elated, that I never even thought that we're lacking something..even though I read mostly in bed, and I used to read a lot

    (the bed stayed for 15 years. it was a full size bed.)

    then when I was moving to CA and I was kinda doing back and forth thing between two coasts for half a year waiting for kids to finish school, I entered some store in Greenwich CT and saw there an upholstered bed

    I clearly wasn't aware that much that upholstered beds exist lol. Or that nice furniture stores existed. It stopped me in my tracks. It was a platform bed, higher headboard, low footboard. It was a floor model so one third of the price. The upholstery was color and pattern(they made a tiny mistake with repeat...that's why I think it ended being on the floor)

    I asked them whether it's possible to deliver it to CA. They said "yes". The delivery from CT to CA added a thousand dollars. I didn't think clearly at that time..

    The store was called "Baker Furniture"..))

    Now when I know so many stores and great resources..but then I knew literally nothing. I just stumbled upon it. We were taking a stroll with my kids on the main street there.

    maybe that's good too since it's one great bed

    I started with matching its colors very closely but soon was bored out of my mind. So I expanded more and more..added this, that..the bed still worked..

    I got braver lately and tried pale pink plus black plus other colors on it too..:)

    But I do see many amazing headboards out there I'd gladly use if I didn't have my bed, or if I needed bed that can have headboard..for example in DD's room headboard-as much as I wanted it-would interfere with the window lines.

    But yes, I always prefer platform beds, headboard or not. Maybe just more how I'm used to it..

  • 9 years ago

    I like that you built a platform bed, no dust etc. That works for me and I only love complete beds with nothing underneath them and easily visible. My master is that way and I can see at a glance if a dust mop is needed.And I feel like a princess on a ship in my four poster.

    Sadly, headboards and metal frames are what are in the two guest bedrooms and they both have dust ruffles, So, of course, they have storage containers under the bed.

    I don't like it.

  • 9 years ago

    I am not a huge adherent of Feng Shui, but when I had my bed in a direct line between the room door and a window, I don't think I slept well, and when I took all the stuff out from under the bed I feel like I slept better.

    The platform is kind of over engineered but the floor is really not flat and I did not want the bed to slant or for there to be a gap on one side for dust to get under and then not have access to it.

    At some point this room may get broadloom as a room sized area rug and honestly I think I am going to have them cut it to fit around the bed platform. It's going to look like a giant toilet rug.

  • 9 years ago

    Lol, no, from you, never. Shag and rounded?

  • PRO
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    P S..Vintage Baker? Will you post?

    My issue is directional: I like my headboard on the East with footboard facing West.

    But once you figure out the room, the exposure, you can position bed to work for the early sunrise (or not).

  • 9 years ago

    No probably wool, velvet cut, and squared off.

  • 9 years ago

    The language of feng shui may sound a little woo-woo to those of us with a Western education and mindset, but from my limited reading about it, a lot of it seems firmly rooted into the psychology of how we relate to spaces and objects (real or perceived), sometimes rooted in a very primitive part of our brains. Like when my bed was oriented so my head was opposite the door. Or sleeping underneath an object or architectural feature that give the impression it could fall on you.

  • 9 years ago

    I have a boring brass bed that I love as it has a Made in Maine mattress that's divine, and there is a wonderful wooden spool bed, converted to full size from 3/4 in the guest bedroom.

    Pal, when you get your rooms the way you want them, I hope you'll share them with us! The mention of your platform bed, and dark blue grass cloth and the paddle switches in your rocker switch post have me trembling with anticipation. I know I'm not alone in feeling that way.

  • PRO
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    The headboards are great and worth a decor scheme, for sure.

    Get frames and, if need be, secure the headboards to the wall.

    Have you a color for the walls in this room?


  • 9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I am building concealed platforms with a toekick that completely blocks off the underneath of the bed from dust (and from the cat, and as a temptation for storage), and attaching the headboards to those. This is the wallcovering going in this room:

    This is out in the bright sun. It's Philip Jeffries.

  • 9 years ago

    I'm in love.....I knew it would be wonderful, but the beds and the WALLCOVERING...Yum! Is it the Blueberry colorway? Our styles are very different, but I know that you like vintage/antique items as I do, and I love to see how you use them.

    I just saw these twin bed head and foot boards that I really like, but no need for it. https://www.chairish.com/product/665883/vintage-boho-style-twin-bed

  • 9 years ago

    I really like those headboard Pal. I hope you will show us how it all turns out. Around here I've not seen many platform beds. We have one in our rv (we have a "real" mattress in the rv). I like the look of bedskirts and we don't put storage boxes under the bed, but under one bed (guest room) I do have a couple of mirrors stored.

  • 9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I've had the same metal bed frame and headboard for years. Headboard has always been wobbly. In my current house it's been in front of a window (so more room to move) and makes a bunch of noise. I took it down a few weeks ago and am looking for a bed. Am I the only one with this problem?

  • 9 years ago

    The colorway for the paper is peacock blue. The room is going to be quite dark overall.